I'm gonna stick up for the Sex Pistols here...
They were not a fucking boy band. It irks me when people say that, because a boy band is created and produced for the pop market. I would say they were more of an art project of Malcom McLaren, who was trying to break into music management for quite awhile (he briefly managed The New York Dolls)... They existed as a band prior to meeting McLaren (Paul Cook and Steve Jones had a band) and McLaren eventually helped get Glen Matlock in and eventually Johnny Rotten. McLaren wanted money, sure, but he did it through chaos and outrage. So he helped assemble them, yes, but they wrote all their own music and wrote one of the greatest punk LP's of that time period.
I can see how some people get put off the mainstream idea that they were the "first" punk band, because they weren't, not even for that 75-77 era... there were bands that released records before Never Mind The Bollocks (Ramones, Dead Boys, Saints, Suicide Commandos). The Damned first 7" came out before theirs did (though the Sex Pistols were around longer).
They really just made punk a worldwide phenomenon, and created a blueprint for what the punk "look" would become. Yeah, the whole safety pin/ripped clothes thing is corny as fuck now, and Sid Vicious really sucked, but at the time it was revolutionary. That album is perfectly produced btw... I suggest giving it another listen, cause that album fucking rules.